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With consumer interest in healthy snacks showing no signs of slowing, Mondelēz International’s fast-growing Perfect Snacks refrigerated protein bars are hoping to ride that momentum and become one of the Oreo maker’s next billion-dollar brands, according to top executives.
Perfect Snacks has been a bright spot in Mondelēz’s extensive snack portfolio since the food manufacturer purchased it in 2019, as the brand benefited from demand for healthy, organic, high-protein products with recognizable ingredient lists. This is why Mondelēz, a company known for billion-dollar brands such as Chips Ahoy, is in the spotlight! Cadbury has high hopes for the 20-year-old snack.
Over the past year, Perfect Snacks’ sales have increased about 20% to $156.4 million, according to Nielsen data provided by Perfect Snacks. The brand’s dollar growth is outpacing the refrigerated snack category as well as the broader protein bar segment, which is expanding nearly five times faster.
“We’ve been very clear with Mondelēz that we have a billion-dollar brand,” Cara Liebrock, CEO of Perfect Snacks, said in an interview. “Our goal is to continue to expand our business while continuing to protect the unique DNA of our brand.”
After its acquisition in 2022, Liebrock observed that Perfect Snacks is “way ahead of its time” due to its better-for-users attributes, but the brand must overcome several hurdles to continue growing. Perfect Snacks needed to expand its presence into more stores, expand its product offering, and educate more people about its protein bar options in the refrigerated section.
Over the past three years, Perfect Snacks has added thousands of locations to its distributors and launched mini options, new flavors and chocolate-coated versions. The company has turned to celebrities, social media influencers and sampling to raise product awareness, most recently sponsoring the Chicago Marathon. The marketing blitz is paying off, with brand awareness increasing by 40% to just over a fifth of the population.
According to the company, once shoppers use Perfect Bar, 63% of them become repeat customers.
Nonetheless, it remains difficult to remind consumers of the product’s existence outside of the traditional snack bar aisle. Liebrock expects the presence of competitors like Mush and Once Upon a Farm to help build the category and make refrigerated bars a top priority for shoppers.
We are “too focused on solving this problem for consumers,” she acknowledged.
Perfect Snacks plans to launch innovative products in 2026 that “address attributes that matter to consumers” to reach more customers. Take advantage of gaps in the bar arena.
“We see opportunities to expand our portfolio and are thinking very carefully about how we do that,” she said. “There will always be some balance in bringing innovation while also continuing to focus on expanding the businesses that (Mondelēz) has acquired.”
